The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to Fibre Channel gateway system for providing a direct Fibre Channel connection to a Fibre Channel storage area network.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs including, for example, server IHSs such as blade servers, may be housed in a chassis enclosure such as, for example, the PowerEdge M1000e blade enclosure available from Dell Inc. of Round Rock, Tex. In some situations, it is desirable to connect those server IHSs to Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs). Conventionally, converged network adapters on the server IHSs that utilize Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) communications must be connected to the SAN fabric via proprietary converged Ethernet switches and, in some cases, FCoE transit switches as well, both options of which suffer from a number of drawbacks.
Conventional proprietary converged Ethernet switches typically include an Ethernet switch Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) connected to a Fibre Channel switch ASIC by a connectivity Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The Ethernet switch ASIC and the Fibre Channel switch ASIC must each be provided their own operating systems and must be configured with separate, different, and distinct command line interfaces. The use of two ASICs and an FPGA, along with other features of conventional proprietary converged Ethernet switches, increases the complexity and the cost of connecting the server IHSs to the SAN. Conventional FCoE transit switches provide a FCoE initialization protocol (FIP) snooping bridge or Front Side Bus (FSB) that does not provide native Fibre Channel at the chassis enclosure, still requires a converged Ethernet switch (such as those discussed above) with a Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) on the uplink ports, and introduce another hop in the FCoE path such that the system is subject to problems including head of line blocking, nondeterministic paths, nondeterministic impact of PAUSE/PFC across the PAUSE domains, and a variety of other multi-hop FCoe problems known in the art.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved Fibre Channel gateway system.